Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-02-21

| in from foreign port. As il comes near the
harbor it secs % pilot floating about. 1t halls lis
the pilot. The pilot comes on board and he
says: Now. captain. you have had stormy
| passage. Go down and sleep and | will take
the vessel into New Iork barbor." After
awhile the captain begins To think: Am l
right in trusting this vessel to that pilotY L
guess I'll go up and see." So he comes to the
pilot and says: "DoN't YOU see that rock
Don't you see those headlands? You will
wreck the ship. Let me lay hold the helm for
awhile for myself, and then Pm trust to you"
The pilot becomes angry ana says: ~
viii either take care OF thus ship or not. II
you want to, | will get into my yawl and
so ashore, or back to my boat " Now we
say to the Lord: 40. God, take my life, take
ALL IN Thy is keePns B Be dn Thou guide
while, and suddenly wake mp and says
'Things are going all wrong. 0, Lord, we
| are driving on these rocks, and Thou art go
| ing to let US be shipwrecked." God says:
You go and rest; will take charge of this
| vessel and take 1t into the harhor." II is
| Gods business TO comfort, and it is oar bust
uess to be comforted Herbert, the great
| thinker, philosophical about himself. philoso-
| phized about this world, philosophical about
| everything; then IN his dying moments asked
! that only one word might be cut upon his
| tombstone, and that word, "Infeicissimus''
| most unhappy--descriptye of the state OF
| the lives and of the deaths of those who take
| their case out of the hand of God. The only
| appropriate inscription for their banqueting
| nall, and their equpage, and their grave. and
| the wall of their eternal prison bOuse-"In-
| felicissimus." In drooling moral idiocy,
they are scrabbling at the door of their hap
| piness, which never opens, miserably playing
| the fool.
Again, L remark, that all those persons
| play the fool, as certainly did this man of the
text, who allow the technicalities of religion
| to stop their salvation. David was wise about
great many things, but his cuttings-up in
the text for a little while eclipsed his charac-
ter. Ana l know wise men and great men,
competent for all other stations, who are act
" a a n n a
technlcalities of religion. They ask us some
questions which we cannot answer oategor-
ically. and so they burst into broad gutfaw,
as though it is OF any more interest to us than
it ought to be to them. About the atonement,
about Gods DEGREES, about mans destiny,
they ask great many questions which we
us, as though we could not ask
them thousand questions that
they cannot answer, about their eyes, about
their ears, about their finger nails, about
everything. A fool can ask question that
wise man cannot answer. o, you cavilling
men! o, you profound men! o, you learned
men, do please admit something You have
soul? Yes. viii 1t live for everp Yes.
Where? You say that Jesus Christ is not
Divine Saviour. Who Is he? Where will you
go after you leave your law books, and your
medical prescriptions. and your club room,
and your newspaper office-where VIII you 90
to? Your body will be six feet under ground.
Where will your soul be2 The black coat VIII
be off, the shroud on. Those spectacles will
| press your eyeids. Have you any idea that
an earthly almanac describes the years OF
| your lifetime? OF what stun shall gather
| the material for the letters of that WORD
| which describes your eternal home? Shall 1t
| be iron chain or amaranthine garlandY
| The air that stirs the besweated locks of
your dying pillow, will IL come Off a garden
| or a desert? Oh quit the puzzling questions
| and try these momentous questions. Quit the
| small questions and try these great questions.
Instead of discussing whether the serpent in
81 GrtfF fipn or flaFa al hn har eq
| Mediterranean fish did or did not swallow
| the recreant prophet, whether this and that
and the other thing is right or wrong, come
| and discuss one question: "How shall / get
| rid OF my sins and win heaven" That Is the
| question for you. Yea, there have been men
| who have actually lost their souls because
| they thought there was discrepancy between
| Moses and Prof. Silliman-because they could
| not understand how there could be light
| before the sun rOse-the light appearing in
verse three of Genesis. and the sun appearing
| not until verse siXteen-and because they do
| not know how the moon could stand still
| without upsetting the universe, and because
they had decided upon the theory of natural
| selection. A German philosopher in dying
had for his chief sorrow that he had not de-
| voted his whole life to the study OF the dative
| case. oh. when your Immortality is in peril,
| WHY bubble? QUIT these non essentials, m y
| dear brother. In the name OF God, ask you
| in regard to these matters OF the immortal
soul, that you do not p ay the fool.
| What is that man doing over in Bowling
| Green, New York? Well. he is going in for a
| ticket for a transatlantic voyage. He is quar-
| reliug with the clerk about the spots-the red
| spots on the ticket-and he is quarreing
| about the peculiar signature OF the president
| o: the steamship company, and he is quar-
reling about the manner of the clerk who
| hands him the ticket. How long has he been
| standing there? Three weeks. Meanwhile,
| perhaps, twenty steamers have gone out of
| port, and hear the shrek of the steam-tug
that could take him TO the last vessel that
| could bear him 10 his engagement in London.
tsl A.1 do nAx
the ticket. What do you say in regard
TO that man? You say he is a
| fool. Well, in that very way are many
| men acting in regard to the matters OF the
| soul. They are cavilling about the attone-
| ment, the red spots on the tcket-about the
| character OF The minister who hands them the
| ucket-about whether 1t has divine or
| human signature. and meanwhile ali their
| opportunities for heaven are sailing out of
tue harbor, and hear the last tap Of the bell
announcing their last chance for heaven. 60
aboard! Do not wasie g any more time in hig-
Cling and carping, and criticislng, and won
| derng, and. in the presence Of an astounded
fheaven, playing the fool.
go still further, and say to you that those
men play the fool who undertake to pay out
eternity for time. How little care do we
bestow upon the railroad depot where we
stop twenty minutes to dine. We dash in and
we dash out again. W @ do not examine the
architecture OF the building, nor the face OF
the caterer. We supply our hunger, we pay
our money, and we pat on our hat and take
|
compared with the place for which we are
bound? Now. my friends, this world Is only
a stopping place on the way to momentous
destination. ana yet how many OF US sit
down as though we had consummatcd our
Journey, as though we had come to the final
| depot. when our stopping here is a. mp6red
with our stopping there as is twenty minutes
TO twelve hours-yea, as the one-hundredth
part of second compared with ten
| thousand million years. Would Spain sell
us Cuba for busnel of wheat? Would Eng
| land sell us India for bushel of coal? Would
| Venice sell us all her pictures for an Ameri :
| can schoolby's sketch? All that would be
u better bargain for England, Spain and Ven :
ice than that man makes who gives ms eter-
nifty for time. Yet, how many there are who
are saying to-day: ''Give me the worlds dol
lars and you may have The eternal rewards.
| Give me the worlds applause and you may
have the garlands of God. Give me twenty
or forty or sixty years OF worldly successes
| and don't care what becomes OF the future.
am going into that world uninsured. take
| the responsibility. Don't bother me about
! your religion. Here have the two worlds
before me-this one and the next. have
| chosen ths. Goaway from me, God and the
| angels, ana all thoughts OF the fuLureW
| But where Is Crmsus and Cleopatra; and
| .EsOpas VINO had one dish OF food that cost
one million four hundred thousand dollars: ::
| and Lentulus, who had pond of fish worth
| a hundred and seventy five thousand dollars.
| and Scaurus, who bought country seat Tor
- al lI..ra lhaNl